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Copyright, 1924

BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American
Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, Copyright, 1901, by Thomas
Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

THIS book is not a substitute for the Bible. It has been prepared for the purpose of putting into the hands of the average reader the gist of the Bible, in the Bible language, without comment. It is compiled in such a way that the main narrative may be readily followed as in any other book intended for ordinary perusal.

The text followed is that of the American Revised Version, which was published in 1901. This is used by permission of the American publishers, and is given without alteration of any sort except that certain portions are omitted, and others rearranged.

The parts omitted from the Old Testament are the Levitical Laws, for the most part, the genealogical tables, parts of the prophecies, and other portions which would not be used in general reading or study by most Bible readers.

In the New Testament the life of Christ has been given in one complete story. The chronological order followed is based on the "Harmony of the Four Gospels" as arranged by J. M. Fuller; and where the same incident has been told by more than one of the four evangelists, the narrative has in each case been chosen from the Gospel which supplies fullest detail, or for some other reason seems best adapted to the purpose. There is nothing, therefore, to confuse the reader in this one comprehensive life, as against the four parallel versions of the New Testament.

The text is presented, like any other book, in straightaway form, with book and chapter headings. For editorial assistance, including much of the careful and valuable arrangement of headings and Index, I am indebted to Miss Henrietta Gerwig. The great convenience which such ar61596SV

rangement will mean to the reader is at once apparent. The difficulty of the average Bible reader in finding the particu lar passage or narrative will be largely removed by this plan of heads and subheads. And the fact that all such topics are indexed will make this, I believe, one of the most accessible texts ever published.

What I have tried to do in this volume is not to attempt anything like a substitute for the Bible, which would surely be a work of presumption on the part of any one, but my desire has been to make the Bible more easily read and studied by the Bible lover. Nothing in the authorized text has been changed or retranslated. Nothing but the Bible itself is in this book. It is simply a compilation of the matter contained in the Bible, arranged typographically so as to be easily studied, and then indexed to give the reader or student quick and accurate reference to any portion of the Bible which he wants to find.

I have given the good part of my evenings for the last twenty-five years to this compilation, and I am naturally very much interested in it and hoping that it may stimulate the reading and studying of the greatest and best book in the world. I hardly need to say that if any one wants to read the entire Bible through and study every syllable in it there is great profit in it, and no hindrance in the mere fact that an abridged Bible is published. But the fact which I want this statement to make clear is that the "Everyday Bible" is not a new text of the Bible, but is a compilation from the Bible just as it stands in the authorized revision, unchanged and without comment.

TOPEKA, KANSAS

CHARLES M. SHELDON.

February, 1924

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